(3 Bolton St. W.)
	15 Esplanade,
	[underline] Dover: Aug. 11th [/underline]

Dear Lawrence Barrett:
	Your letter (of the 28th)
breathes so liberal a
spirit that I am al-
most ashamed to say
I still find your proposal
impracticable.
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I simply don't, & can't,
see a [underline] play [/underline] in the "Portrait",
 & find my own conviction
unsurmountable that
such a play, at least, as
I should desire to write, cannot
come out of it. There
are very fixed limits
in regard to what i should
be willing to do in the way
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of "going back", as it were,
on the novel, by altering
& working over the [strikethrough]?[/strikethrough] story
as then put forth. Any
very material changes
would [savour?], to me,
of parodying, or giving
away, one's own production.
A writer must see such
a matter as this with
his own eyes- if he is
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to see it at all, & I am
afraid I shouldn't be 
able to see it with yours,
even if we were to talk
the matter over, great
as are the inducements
which you offer to such
an effort. I thank you
very kindly for the facilities
you hold out for my coming
over to look into the
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thing. Even if my state
of mind (as to the particu-
lar suggestion) were less
sceptical, I should not
be able to cross the water
this year. Nor would
I be able to get at the
production of a play
before January 1st. You
see to what extent [---]
conversations are against
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my throwing myself into
your vision. I am afraid
I can console myself &
you (if [strikethrough]?[/strikethrough] you need consu-
lation), only by saying, in a gene-
ral way, that I should
be glad to try something
next year. But it would-
n't, it couldn't, be the
"Portrait".- I am not
as yet prepared to say
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what it [underline] would [/underline] be, but
I should [underline] probably [/underline] be pre-
pared to write you a
play, to take or to leave,
as you should like it
or not, on the chance
that if you [underline] should [/underline] like
it, it would open the
door to my acquiring
a goodish sum of money.
This would leave us
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both our liberty, & the
stake, for me, would be worth
while. I will devote my-
self meanwhile to thinking
out a big situation, inter-
national if possible; & if
you don't hear from
me it will be [strikethrough]?[/strikethrough] because I haven't
been able to think of one
big enough. Perhaps next
year you will come this
way? Ever faithfully
	Yours   [underline] Henry James [/underline]